Sunday, November 13, 2011

RECIPE: Pasta with Pumpkin Sage Cream Sauce and Prosciutto

My favorite way to eat pumpkin will always be in the form of some sweet treat such as pumpkin bread, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake (yum!), pumpkin ice cream (double yum!) and even pumpkin smoothies. Every once in a while, though, it's nice to venture on the savory side with pumpkin, but up until now, I've only ventured that way while dining out--not at home. So after getting a large Long Island pumpkin and a bunch of fresh sage in our organic co-op recently, I decided to try to make a pumpkin cream sauce with sage to serve with pasta.

There are many recipes out there for pumpkin cream sauce, of which the base ingredients are always pumpkin and cream with some variation of additional savory ingredients. I came up with this recipe that I think emphasizes the pumpkin and uses just a bit of half and half to make the sauce creamy. I also added a little bit of crispy prosciutto to each serving, which added more depth of flavor to the dish. It can certainly be omitted for a vegetarian version. I'm happy with the way this recipe turned out and hope you give it a try sometime. I'd love to hear from you if you do!


Pasta with Pumpkin Cream Sauce with Sage and Prosciutto
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 finely chopped onion
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup fresh pumpkin puree
1/4 cup half and half
1 tablespoon butter
fresh sage leaves, thinly sliced
salt & pepper

1-2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 oz. thinly sliced prosciutto, cut into small pieces

1/2 lb. dried pasta, cooked al dente

freshly grated parmesan cheese

1. Cook pasta al dente according to package directions.

2. While pasta is cooking, heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium high heat. Add the onion, garlic and four or five thinly sliced sage leaves, cooking until the onion begins to soften, about 2-3 minutes.

Tip: Add the sage sparingly at first, tasting the sauce as it cooks and adding more sage to suit your taste.  

3. Lower the heat to medium low and add the pumpkin puree, stirring often. Season with salt and pepper and cook until hot.

Tip: Fresh pumpkin puree is best for this dish, but if you use canned pumpkin you may need to thin it with some water or broth to get the proper sauce consistency. 

4. While the pumpkin sauce is cooking, heat a teaspoon or two of olive oil in a small skillet until hot. Add the cut up prosciutto and cook until crispy. Remove from heat and keep warm until serving.

5. Add the half and half and stir until heated through. If the sauce is too thick, it may be thinned with chicken broth or water.

6. When the pasta is ready, remove the pumpkin cream sauce from heat and add the butter, stirring until melted. Add minced fresh sage leaves and check for seasoning.

7. Toss sauce with hot pasta, sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese, crispy prosciutto and additional sage leaves, if desired. Best served immediately while hot!

Enjoy!



This is my first time participating in the weekly blog event Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food related post to share--a food related book review (fiction or nonfiction), cookbook review, movie review, a recipe, random thoughts, gadgets, food quotations, photographs, etc. Visit Beth's blog for more information.

16 comments:

  1. I adore pumpkin in both its guises -- sweet and savory. This sounds like winner with the sage, proscuitto, and half-and-half. Yummm.

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  2. Ohh it's that time of the year! Time to start collecting Pumpkin recipes again. *g* You know how much I love them. Thanks for this Christine. I think it's going to taste delicious!

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  3. Yum. I have tons of pumpkin puree in the freezer. I'll be trying this one soon!

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  4. I must confess that I've never been a pumpkin fan, but that there picture has me drooling!

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  5. I could have sworn I commented here yesterday. Grrrrr. Bad Blogger for eating my comment:

    I adore pumpkin (as I say often) -- either sweet or savory. and this one with the sage and half-and-half looks fantastic. How can you go wrong when you add a bit of prosciutto? This is going on my winter to-try list.

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  6. Hmmm, sounds good! I'll have to give this recipe to my sister and see if she can make it LOL :)Thanks Christine!

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  7. Wow this looks fantastic! Now I'm hungry :-)

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  8. Pumpkin smoothies?! That looks so good! I need to try the recipe… I like that Weekend Cooking event, I just read a book with a lot of cooking in it that would be perfect to review, I’ll try to participate next week!

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  9. I've never been a huge fan of pumpkin, but recently made pumpkin muffins that even I'll eat. *g* I may have to try this side of the pumpkin recipe track. Thanks for sharing!

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  10. Pumpkin & pasta sounds divine! I plan on giving this recipe a try!

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  11. Definitely have to make this, it looks fantastic!

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  12. This recipe looks a lot like a pumpkin ravioli served at a restaurant in Oregon. It had a cream sauce, as I recall. Probably same ingredients, just arranged differently. Yours looks delish.

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  13. Hey everyone!
    Sorry for the delay in responding to all of your great comments. Time seems to just slip between my fingers, you know? I'm sure it's the same with you, so thank you so much for checking out my pumpkin cream sauce recipe. If you get around to trying it, I'd love to hear how it worked out for you.

    Hilcia... "Collecting Pumpkin recipes." I love that!

    Linda... I think this recipe will turn out best with fresh pumpkin puree. Mine came from the freezer, too!

    orannia... It's ok. Not everyone is a fan of pumpkin. My husband doesn't really like ANY kind of squash. More for me! :)

    Beth F... Prosciutto definitely perks up this dish. I almost wished I used more, but I was trying to be a little health conscious here. ; )

    nath... LOL! Knowing your sister, she'll probably find some way to tweak this recipe, so if she does, please come back and share. <--that's meant as a compliment to her, btw.

    Dev... Thanks! :)

    Brie... Oh, I hope you try one of my pumpkin recipes. Let me know how it works out. I recently saw a pumpkin smoothie recipe on The Pioneer Woman site that sounded even better than mine. You may want to check it out!

    Also, it would be great if you posted for Weekend Cooking next weekend! I'm usually pretty busy over the weekends, but I'm really going to try to participate in this blog event every week. We'll see how it goes..

    Brandy... I saw on fb that you made those pumpkin muffins. I'm so proud of you. LOL.

    Annie... I hope you try it!

    Carol... thanks! I hope you get around to trying it.

    readramble... The first time I've had a savory pumpkin dish, it was also a pumpkin ravioli that I had in a restaurant with similar ingredients, too. I loved it which is why I went this way with trying a savory pumpkin dish at home. :)

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  14. We really don't do sweet pumpkin, but I do love savoury pumpkin!

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  15. Marg.. I hope you're inspired to try this recipe sometime!

    Michelle... Did you try it or are you just drooling at the prospect? lol


    Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! :)

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